1 9 1 3 • Na tu re Reserves II3 
Montagu, m.p., the Earl of Plymouth, C.B., Professor E. B. 
Poulton, F.R.S., Sir David Prain, f.r.s., *the Hon. N. C. 
Rothschild, *W. H. St. Ouintin, Dr. R. F. Scharff, W. M. 
Webb. Ex-oficio : Hon. Treasurer, *C. E. Fagan, i.s.o. ; 
Hon. Secretaries, *W. R. O.o:ilvie-(irant, and *the Hon. 
F. R. Henley. 
The Trustees of the British Museum have kindly given 
permission to the committee to use the Natural History 
Museum, Cromwell-road, London, S.W., as the temporary 
address of the society. 
To carry out the objects of the society prompt action 
must be taken, for year by year suitable areas become 
fewer ; and local plants and insects are found to have been 
extirpated when the acquisition of a few acres of land 
would have saved them. vSuch land is often unsuitable for 
other purposes ; an isolated spot on Government property, 
a piece of marshland, a bird-haunted cliff, or a stretch of 
wood and copse where the undergrowth has been allowed to 
follow its own devices are admirable subjects for nature 
reserves. Above all, it is essential that the land selected 
or reserved should as far as possible retain its primitive 
wildness. Such lands still exist in the United Kingdom, 
though each year they become more rare, and once deprived 
of their indigenous occupants they can never be restored 
to a natural state. It should be borne in mind that if in 
the course of time, owing to the growth of a city, or for 
some other reason, a nature reserve has ceased to serve its 
purpose, the ground would still be valuable as an open space. 
On the Continent, as already observed, the importance 
of nature reserves has been widely recognized. In Germany, 
particularly, a large amount of land has been reclaimed, 
and in a recently published book, Herr H. Conwentz, 
Prussian State Commissioner for the Care of Natural 
Monuments, gives a detailed account of the work done in 
the several States of the Empire. Bavaria, more than a 
hundred years ago, bought up the Bamberg suburban 
woods, afterwards forbidding indiscriminate forestry, and 
ordering the foresters to preserve and catalogue the chief 
natural features. Later, a general committee composed 
